The Roles People Play in a Team and How They Can Work Together to Achieve Shared Goals - Literature review Example

Employability Skills June 21 The roles people play in a team and how they can work together to achieve shared goals. A team is a collection of a group of people who are organized to work cohesively and independently to meet desired common purpose and goals. A team occurs, when a number of people who have a unified goal, and appreciate that their personal success is subject to success of others, hence, it means that in most teams, people will contribute individual skills many of which might be different. Belbin (2011) highlights that, teams are made of individual members who have come together and the rest of the group understands each member’s role. Therefore, team role is “an inclination to behave, contribute and interrelate with other people in a particular way”, and it measures behaviour rather than individuals personally (Belbin 2011). Therefore, we can guarantee that we can use our strengths to our advantage, by discovering our team roles to assist us to manage our weak points. According to Belbin (1981, cited in select knowledge 2001 p.32), there are nine team roles which individuals prefer to assume or avoid, when required by circumstances. These team roles consist of Resource investigator, Coordinator, Monitor Evaluator Team workers, Plant, Implementer, Shaper, Specialist and Completer Finisher (Belbin 2011). I have experienced some of these roles in my high school study team and in other various tasks; I have done with friends during previous engagements. Some of them relate to my team members and others to me. The first role is the plant, which consists of people who are highly creative, who innovate and invent methods or technique. These people through innovation provide the foundation in which ideas develop in the team (Belbin 2011). These people have a character of alienating themselves from the rest of the team so that they can concentrate on their imaginative thinking. They have a personality of being introverts and are self centered and would have strong reactions to both criticism and praise. This is because they are normally original in their ideals and being introverts, they have a weakness in communicating with other team members (Belbin 2011). In team roles, plants have an important role to play in teams because their main function is generating new ideas and techniques to assist the team to solve complex problems (select knowledge 2001). For example, in a study group that we had formed with friends in high school, we used to do group assignments as a team. One team member, Denis, was good at doing research in some of the assignment topics, but he could not explain the findings verbally although he wrote and analyzed them properly. In my opinion, his role in our team would fit as a plant because of his originality in presentations that helped our team to produce high quality and scored high points in our assignments. The second team role as suggested by Belbin is the resource investigators (select knowledge 2001 p. 32). They can be said to have some opposite characteristics of the plants because, they are extroverts and often enthusiastic. In this role Hogan (2007 p.65) also highlights that, resource investigator are good in communicating and negotiating with people both inside and outside their teams. Notably, they are also good in accommodating ideas from other people and developing those ideals to accomplish team goals, this is due to their investigative characteristics and willingness to utilize new possibilities in those ideas. Resource Investigators have a very important function in the team as Belbin suggest, they are hence the best people to be used for setting up contacts with people outside the team because of their extrovert’s personality. This would therefore, help the team to achieve their shared goals. In my teamwork experience, I would relate my personal team role as a resource investigator because; I would ensure that the team members worked cohesively. In addition, I would work with other classmates and library assistants, who would help me to get few points for my team or personal school assignments. This assisted our team to meet the threshold required in our assignments. However, through this experience, it would be unpleasant to the team if it had too many plants. This is because; they might conflict while trying to reinforce each of their individual ideals thereby delaying some project tasks. Monitor evaluator is another important team role, suggested by Belbin (I981, cited in select knowledge 2001 p.32), individual with this role are slow in making up decisions but come up with clever decisions on ideas after taking all the consideration involved. In addition, they are very cautious in their work. In practice, the monitor evaluators play a very important function in teams. This is because they are the best individual to analyze problems and evaluate ideas and suggestions in the team because of their critical thinking. Out of experience with my high school study team, I would relate the monitor evaluator role to my friend Roy, who would critically analyze all our team member’s contributions so that he could come up with a well-polished final document for presentation. The fourth team role is the coordinator and their distinctive characteristics are that they influence others to work cohesively towards common goals. They are good at delegating tasks, trustworthy and confident (select knowledge 2001; Belbin 1996). Their function in the team is to influence and offer guidance to people with diverse skills in the team towards the team objective. Belbin (1981) suggests that the coordinators are known as chairman in their teams. Through my experience in a study team, the role of the coordinator would fit in with our team leader Eric. This is due to his ability to divide the assignments between all the members, so that we work in small work bits first before submitting our combined findings. Shapers are the fifth team role, and it comprises of the highly motivated individuals who exhibit high energy and need for achievement (Belbin 2011). They are also very aggressive extroverts and usually like to challenge other people ideas with a main interest being to win in those challenges select knowledge (2001, p.32) suggests that shapes have “a strong drive and the willingness to challenges in effectiveness, complacency inertia and self-deception”. Therefore, it can be observed that shapers would lead other team members and compel them into actions, and they find solutions to perceived problems (Belbin 1996). In their function in teams, shapers are effective because, they guarantee positive action in the teams through tackling problems that arise in teams that might hinder attainment of team goals (Belbin 2011). Our team leader Eric would also fit as a shaper in our team, because he would often require members to defend answers they gave. This ensured that everyone gave satisfactory results on what was delegated to them. As Belbin points out, team’s worker is the sixth team role. They are characterized by the ability to be highly flexible and adaptive to situations, and are supportive. In addition, they have high listening skills and diplomatic by avoiding conflicts (Select knowledge 2001p.33). They have an important function of preventing interpersonal conflicts, which might cause project, & task belays and they ensure that teams work cohesively in co-operation. All team members exhibited the team workers role and I observed that because, our team was formed out of member’s personal willingness, each member worked cohesively with each other, and this helped to avoid conflicts. Therefore, our team worked cohesively through the team worker role that the members played. Implementer is another team role, and it consists of the individuals’ who highly favour challenging task and like to handle problems in a systematic method. They are highly interested in the organizations goals rather than personal interest. They have a very important role because they are driven by the organizational objective of their tasks (Belbin 2011.p.7). My friend Ryan exercised this role because I observed that he would even pay for expenses on resources that our team used, for the benefit of the whole team and we would later reimburse him after assignments were completed. The second last Team role is the completer finisher and it consist of by individuals’ who have great attention to task details and are anxious. Their anxiety makes them do tasks that they can complete and are perfectionist (Select knowledge 2001). Their observables function is that, they do spearhead a sense of urgency and accuracy in performance f the tasks and schedules. Lastly, the other team role is the specialists, and it consist of dedicated individuals and they have a pride in possessing technical skills and knowledge. They therefore, defend their professional field because it is rare and highly specialized (Belbin 2011). They play a very important function of providing rare skills that teams rely on in performance of project tasks. Therefore, they are supportive of the team through their specialized skills, knowledge and experience. In reality, every person has their own areas of specialty, and that they are good at. In my experience in a study team, different team members depending with the task took the specialist role. This was because; individuals were personally good at doing different topics of interest. In conclusion, I can say that our team always achieved the desired objectives that we set. We assisted each other in studies and doing other academic tasks, our understanding between every member’s roles and character helped us to work cohesively. This is because the team was well equipped by having all the team members roles incorporated in the team. Therefore, success of a team depends with what roles members play towards achievement of team’s objectives. Analysis of Team Dynamics A team is a complex organization of people, and the member must work cohesively to achieve group goals and objectives. Therefore the members of a team need to evaluate their differences and through those differences find strengths that they can use to leverage their commitments towards their team goals (Scholtes el al 2003 p.6). Therefore, the members should identify themselves with the team and develop a common set of values and norms that they can work together effectively as a team. As suggested by Tuckman (Chimaera Consulting, 2001 p.1), there are predictable stages of work team development and they must be experienced by the team for it be become effective work group. The process of forming a team and identifying a set of value and norms takes time, and this process takes five stages that were highlighted by Tuckman the 1960’s and revised in 1977, which include; storming; adjourning, performing Norming and forming. Forming is the first stage of the Tuckmans team development model (Nelson and Campbell 2012 p.320). At this stage, the individual team member comes together, with a sense of anticipation and commitment. Their motivation is usually high, because of being selected to become part of a project team. Through experience, individuals are highly enthusiastic, and they heavily rely on the leader to make decisions on the course of action that they should take. At this stage, the team member’s effectiveness moderates because they are not sure of each other (Scholtes et al 2003). For example, I experienced the forming stage on my first day in college. This is because; everyone was highly enthusiastic and looking forward to that day in meeting new people. The second stage is storming and it is usually regarded as the most difficult stage (Scholtes 2003). This stage is characterized by some amount of conflict brought about by power struggles within the team group members. This is because members find that they have differences about the best way of achieving some team objective (Nelson and Campbell 2012 p.320). With time, clarity of the team purpose increases and members and as new college students, Storming stage was experienced when we got into class and people started socializing. Through socializing, people were divided into different groups and each one of them wanted to be seen as superior to the other. Norming is the third stage, it is characterized by overcoming resistance and feeling, and cohesiveness is developed, moreover, people become intimate and they express their personal opinions and feeling (Nelson and Campbell 2012). At this stage, team members reach agreements over various issues and this will be by a process of negotiation and compromise and finding areas of commonality. Therefore, the team develops a sense of identity through a set of norms and values which forms of the basis for working together thereby increasing motivation and effectiveness (Nelson and Campbell 2012). In my high school study group, at first, we had trouble understanding each other’s personalities and at some point, we overcame this. As a result, norms and values were developed and this would relate to this stage of group development. The fourth stage is performing, it is characterized by a good feeling by a good feeling by the members on the team’s progress, and the team is able to prevent and work through problems that they face (Nelson and Campbell 2012 p.321). The performance of the team reaches its optimal plateau at this stage. In addition, through experience, it is noted that the members understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and they have close attachments. The last stage is adjourning and is also known as deforming or morning, this is because the stage involve, dissolution of the project team, termination of rules takes are completed and dependency’s reduced (smith 2005). In my experience, this is the most difficult stage because the members regret the end of their team tasks and breakdown of the relationships they have enjoyed being members of a team. For example, in life, people come to a time when they have to part ways, and go in different directions, and this marks the adjourning stage. In my experience, it was especially very difficult during our last days in high school. This is because; everyone knew that they would not meet the people whom they had enjoyed a relationship with. Alternative ways to complete tasks and achieve team goals Scholars have attempted to define and look for methods of achieving team goals and objectives. Goals of a team should be SMART, meaning that they should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely (Meyer, 2003). Firstly, I would suggest that the goals should be specific in nature. This implies that the goals should have a chance of being accomplished by the team and they should be able to predict the outcome of the various tasks (Meyer 2003). They should help the team to focus their efforts and clearly define their destined outcomes. Secondly, the goals should be measurable and this means that the team members should be able to set up a criterion that they can use to measure progress towards attainment of team goal (Meyer 2003). Measuring progress is done so that the team can establish any changes that occur in the process of achieving the desired goals. Therefore, this helps the team to stay on track towards goal achievement. The goals should also be attainable, and this means that if the team suggests goals that important to it, then it will be highly motivated to come up with ways of achieving those goals. The goals should have a possibility of being achieved and hence motivating the team (Meyer 2003). Fourthly, the goals should be realistic; therefore, they should be in line with the teams and organizational overall objectives and strategies. The team should have assurance that the goals they are setting should be attainable so that their tasks are achieved. Lastly, the goals should be timely; however, I would suggest that the goals should have a timeframe attached to them. The goals in this context should also be tangible with better chances of team members achieving them (Meyer 2003). However, there are other alternative ways, which as a team leader, I would adopt to ensure that the team performs effectively if I worked with the team again. One of the ways is to use the eight strategies as suggested by Merlyn. The first step would be to set team goals which should be specific, measurable, attainable realistic and attainable. This is because; with set goals I believe the team can have a sense of direction on where it is heading (Merlyn 2007 p.1). The second step I would seek to adopt is to align the team’s goals with the organization’s and individual values. While carrying out this strategy I would also ensure that the goals of the team reflect the beliefs and character of the team members and of the organization; therefore, the goals should be meaningful and clear to the team members and this will assist them in completing their tasks. The third step I would adopt to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in the team is sharing of the team goals with the team members; moreover, this ensures that the goals of the team do not conflict with each member’s personal objectives (Merlyn 2007). Moreover, I would also assemble materials that the team needs during the performance of the project tasks this I think would avoid derailment of the team members from their desired goals and eliminating wastage of time (Merlyn 2007). In case I was to work with the same team again, in order to minimize potential challenges I would create measurable action plan towards achievement of goals, putting team’s actions into a schedule and evaluating the team’s progress regularly so as to make necessary changes in cases of variances (Merlyn 2007 p.3). Moreover, I would ensure that the team completes one action at a time consistently to propel the team towards their main goals. The second last step is to establish a support system or team, which can encourage and advice the team members on achieving their goals (Merlyn 2007 p.4). Lastly, I would establish a reward system for employees/team members, after achieving milestones in their goals this would motivate the team members to achieve higher goals and objectives. How motivational techniques can be used to improve the quantity of your performance Performance management cycle is a technique that managers use to encourage job satisfaction and growth of employees (Lucas et al 2006). It helps the managers to achieve organizational goals through employees, and creating a system for improvement. The performance management cycle consists of four processes that include planning, developing, performing and review (Lucas et al 2006 P. 176). Planning is the process of identifying future performance targets and actions to be undertaken. The plan should motivate me as an individual in my team so that I can achieve the desired goals. Therefore, my plan would integrate both my individual goals and organizational goals so that it can develop my commitment and that of other team members. The second step is developing, and it is concerned with the development of my individual potential and skills (Lucas et al 2006). Therefore, I would develop knowledge and skills that can motivate me to work harder towards attainment of my goals. The third step is performing, which is concerned with the performance of various tasks by individuals so that they can achieve organizational objectives. Their performance should deliver something that is beneficial to the organization (Lucas et al 2006 p.177). At this point, supposing I was a leader of a team, I would motivate my fellow team members so as to stimulate performance and facilitate development opportunities in the team. The final step is the review, and it is concerned with considerations on how achievements have been accomplished (Lucas et al 2006). The results of the review provide me with a guide on which areas to concentrate on when returning back to the planning stage. Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs motivational theory can be used to improve performance. Abraham Maslow’s work was presented in the 1960s and 1970s as a theory of inspiration based on a hierarchy of needs; moreover, according to Pride (2003), a need is a personal requirement. Therefore, Maslow assumed that humans “want beings”. In this context, the needs are arranged in order of to importance commonly known as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (p. 282). Based on this theory, when one need is met and satisfied, a different need assumes importance and motivates increased efforts until it is satisfied. The hierarchy of needs is explained as follows, physiological needs are the first, and they are the things that the human body needs to survive. They include the basic needs like food, shelter and clothing, which are essential to preserve human life. In the teams, it is usually a need to feel that one belongs to a team, and when one gets the feeling of belonging, their performance can improve. The next level is the safety needs, which are the things, required by humans for physical and emotional security, moreover, they include job security, health insurance and safe working conditions. They help to create freedom from anxiety and worry, moreover, this satisfaction will help me to perform highly in tasks because, and there is comfort without anxiety. The third level contains social needs, which comprise the human requirement for love and a sense of belonging. After the lowest needs are met, people will crave affection for others whereby they will strive to avoid feelings of loneliness and rejection (preziosi, 2008). It is suggested that the theory pointed the importance of family and community in satisfying this level of needs. I like socializing and networking with friends and new people, and this helps to create a sense of belonging. One feels a part of a bigger community and one can use the networks with friends to improve the performance of some tasks. The next level is the esteem need, which is a need for a positive self-image and respect. Self-esteem is shown to increase as a person succeeds, receives praise or experiences love. This occurs, when individuals have an inner feeling that they are doing something worthwhile. Positive self-esteem motivates one to improve performance to new levels than the previous levels. Therefore, the performance will gradually increase as one undertakes similar tasks. The last stage is the self-actualization needs where Individuals would become discontent and restless (preziosi, 2008). Therefore, they looked for self-actualization that was described by Maslow as “what a man can be, he must be”. This stage can help me to set new and higher performance levels of what level I would want performance to be, and set strategies of achieving such levels. In conclusion, to improve the quality of performance, team leaders and managers can use Maslow and other motivational techniques. The Maslow Motivational technique is used to assist managers in meeting both organizational and individual employees’ goals and this can be done using reviews. The Maslow’s theory is useful in improving performance, since it can be used to motivate team members to perform because people have various needs to be met and if they are addressed effectively, they can be motivated to perform highly. References Andrews J. G. & Bean T W 2007, critical literacy: context research & practice. sage publications, Thousand Oaks. Belbin R. M. 2011, Team Roles. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 8 June 2012] Belbin R.M. 2011, Method Reliability and Validity, Statics and Research: A Comprehensive Review of Belbin Team Roles. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 8 June 2012] Chimaera consulting 2001, FAMOUS MODELS: Stages of Group Development [Online] Available at: [Accessed 8 June 2012] Lucas R, lopton B, Mathiesm H, 2006, Human Resource MGT in an international context. London, CIPD Enterprises Merlyn S 2007, Strategies for Achieving Smart Goals, project SMART, UK. [Online] Available at: http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/pdf/8-strategies-for-achieving-smart-goals.pdf [Accessed 8 June 2012] Meyer, Paul. Attitude is Everything. Meyer Resource Group, 2003. Nelson D.L, Campbell J. 2012, Organization Behavior: science the real word and you, UK , cengage learning. Preziosi, Robert. The 2008 Pfeifer Annual: Management Development. Huizenga: John Wileys & sons, 2008. Pride, W.M, Robert Hughes, and J.R Kapoor. Business. Cengage Learning, 2003. Scholtes P.R, Janer BL, Barbara JS 2003, The team Hand book. USA, oriel publishing Select knowledge 2001, making teams. UK. select knowledge limited Smith M.K. 2005, Forming Storming, Norming and Performing In Groups: The Encyclopedia Of Informal Education. [Online] Available at: http://www.d.umn.edu/~kheltzer/sw8441_fall07/Tuckman%27s%20Forming,%20Norming,%20Storming.pdf [Accessed 8 June 2012] Read More